As the $787 billion economic stimulus package goes to President Obama today for signature, gas station and convenience store owners wonder what benefit it may bring them.
Reports are that $200 million will go to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund for enforcement and cleanup of petroleum leaks, but will not inject cash into reimbursement programs.
This post, “Our Slice of the Pie” on NPN sheds some light on implications for the gas and convenience store industry.
On a related note, the Internal Revenue Service posted on February 5, 2009, on its website “Petroleum and Retail Industries - Leaking Underground Storage Tank Remediation Reimbursement Program” to address the issue whether “payments received by corporate owners or operators of underground storage tanks from state financial assurance and compensation programs (“financial assurance funds”), or other state or local underground storage tank cleanup reimbursement programs, should be characterized as nonshareholder contributions to capital . . .”
The answer: they are not. “. . . amounts from state financial assurance funds or other reimbursement programs are included in gross income under Internal Revenue Code section 61(a).”
